What is Aesthetics?

· Aesthetics comes from the word “esthetics”
· Aesthetics is the study of beauty or philosophy of art
· Tries to explain how people perceive and access the meaning, importance and purpose of art

Traditional	Today
· Focused on nature of beauty, relationship between: Artist, Art Object & Perceiver	· When is something a work of art? · What role do emotions play in appreciating art? · What is taste? · When is art beneficial? · When is art destructive? · Can ugly art be good art? · Etc.

Philosophers examine the connection between people’s senses, emotions and reason.
· Personal Aesthetics: people’s own principles of taste and appreciation of beauty
· Personal Aesthetics affects the way on how people experience the world and the choices they make every day.
· So aestheticians do not attempt to find exact, permanent standard. They look for tendency and correlations.
· Aristotle believed that art can be studied and analyzed in the same way as natural phenomena. In Poetics he identifies standards of art forms.
· Knowledge of art can be used for good and bad purpose so contemporary aesthetics includes questions about whether and how art and knowledge of art can be used to achieve the best possible ends.
· Role of Artist is also important: according to Aristotle, the act of creating art brings out a sense of catharsis, an emotional purging that artist experience as an intuitive signal that a work is complete.
· Artists express themselves or their feelings in art, conveying a message in emotional and aesthetic level.
§ Audience must be open and capable of responding aesthetically to the message.
§ So, attitude and ability plays a big role in defining how art is perceived.